I’m not an immigrant or a minority; I’m unfamiliar with that experience. However, I am familiar with American culture. Please resist branding me with the choice terms of “racist,” “xenophobic” or “nativist,” and instead entertain a thoughtful critique of U.S. identity politics and how multiculturalism has become destructive to the American identity.
Multiculturalism is not about respecting or celebrating cultural diversity; instead it’s about criticizing Western civilization. This effort is expedited by Western elites, like Susan Sontag, who consider the white race the “cancer of history.” Multiculturalism champions non-Western cultures and fails to discuss the various shortcomings and the singling out of poorly treated minorities within other cultures, while it continually maligns the West as a greedy, cruel, exploitative, war-mongering criminal responsible for all the world’s imperfections.
More concerning are the politics which form the core of multiculturalism — the idea that membership to a group forms the individual in terms of fixed differences from other groups, commonly called identity politics. This contradicts and rejects the core assumptions and principles of our liberal democracy. Our founding and current government is based on the principle of individual, inalienable rights possessed by each individual no matter what religion or culture they belong to. Inalienable rights supersede factors of race or religion or any other socially constructed group characteristic. Multiculturalism confines the individual to boundaries of their minds (or someone else’s) own creation, often simplistically described in terms of generalizations and stereotypes. The newly defined marginalized groups then demand special “rights” and conditions for that group, special treatment based on the assumption that the group has been historically marginalized and is now entitled to reparations of some form.
The fallout from the multiculturalists’ narrative mischaracterizes the facts of history. Western civilization has transferred more freedom and prosperity to more ordinary people, which is why millions of non-Westerners put their lives on the line traveling to Europe and America. Naturally, immigration is where multiculturalism has its most devastating consequences. Even though Americans have not yet seen consequences as extaordinary as those experienced by Europe, which fell hook, line and sinker for the multiculturalists’ victim status, we too have bought into the multicultural narrative, and it has compromised our country’s culture by tampering with immigration system for political expedience.
The traditional immigration model was based on assimilation. Having physically moved to the country, the immigrant voted with his or her feet for the superiority of America. This required the immigrant to become American. This meant learning American English, U.S. history, political practices and parties and cultural traditions that help identify Americans as American. The immigrant of course had the opportunity to not assimilate, but in the end most did in order take full advantage of the political and economic opportunities their new home offered.
Today, many immigrants are taught to embrace a sense of entitlement and resentment that demands society to acknowledge some grievance and repay them. The effect is to divide, not unify, to turn group against group as each tries to out-victimize the other; this is commonly called class warfare. The essence of being an American has been reduced to being “accepting,” ironically hiding the intolerance and anti-Americanism within the different groups multiculturalism elevates.
The end result is the grotesque and peculiar manifestation we see every day, one that would not be tolerated outside the West. People have risked their lives and those of their families to come to America, some illegally, some openly condemning and berating this country and asserting the superiority of their native lands, which failed to support the immigrant and his family initially. Consequently, the average American is mystified and angered by the lack of appreciation and hypocrisy, not to mention the belittling of their country and its history.
Daily Nexus conservative columnist Ben Parish is American, dammit.
Let’s not ignore the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. Islam.
I wouldn’t say its “responsible for all the world’s imperfections.”
The guy is getting race mixed up with being an American.
“Today, many immigrants are taught to embrace a sense of entitlement and resentment that demands society to acknowledge some grievance and repay them.” hahahahhahahahahahahhaah, I can’t stop laughing at this part. ahahhahaah, omg, hahhahahahahahahahhahahahhaa. Yeah, someone stop this practice to those over-entitled darkies. hahahahahahhahahahahah.
Love this tactic. “HAHA, I will say something racist and then pretend that’s what the other person said.”
Or the huge King Kong on the rooftop, Christianity.
“The fallout from the multiculturalists’ narrative mischaracterizes the facts of history.”
This is pretty sad. Our history courses need to stop brainwashing these white kids in thinking that native american genocide and african american lynching is not a part of american history. native american and african american sure sound american to me.
I feel really badly that someone with this screwed up of a perspective actually made it to college. Makes me sad for how effed his parents probably are.
“Our history courses need to stop brainwashing these white kids in thinking that native american genocide and african american lynching is not a part of american history.” Increasingly, these are the only things taught in history courses. The extent to which professors claim they are expressing an “alternative narrative” of history is staggering, because it is the singular narrative that is ever discussed in university lecture halls. Our American series at UCSB is even referred to as “The American People”, based on writings from Ivy scholars claiming to speak for a personified “society”. You can go through the entire series… Read more »
You obviously have not taken Hist 17A or 17C. I have been assigned George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” (blueprint for Containment) in multiple classes and have written multiple papers on Constitutional arguments between the Framers using the Federalist Papers
All three of them actually. If your instructors assigned such material then amen to that, you’re luckier than I was in ’06. The only paper with a specified topic was to interview a family member about the Vietnam War, the others were all on a “topic of your own choosing,” in consultation with the T.A. B didn’t even have a paper, just three bluebook exams and one of them didn’t count.
Morethanu, you don’t have to spend the rest of your life apologizing for Islam. There are options, such as telling the truth. >>The Muslim Game: Bringing other religions down to the level of Islam is one of the most popular strategies of Muslim apologists when confronted with the spectacle of Islamic violence. Remember Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber? Why pick on Islam if other religions have the same problems? The Truth: Because they don’t. Regardless of what his birth certificate may or may not have said, Timothy McVeigh was not a religious man (in fact, he stated explicitly that… Read more »
pebbles, fyi Islam is not a race. It’s a religion.
One reason it’s not a race is because wherever it has conquered people, Islam has forcibly converted those people to Islam. This includes southern Asians who look very little like Arabs, black Africans (who, btw, are being killed by Arab-looking Muslims in Sudan because they are not Arab-lokking enough), people from the Caucus region, etc…
Does this help you understand why it’s impossible to dislike Islam and not be a racist?
I was responding to Morethanu’s comment about “over entitled darkies”, Arafat.
Well, you went to different american schools than I did. I learned mostly about white america.
the ahahhahaha is because minority peoples who have been denied their rights to marry, property, I could go on and on have not received compensation. Who said anything about racism. I’m laughing at the quote because of its incredible inaccuracy. The entire article is so full of shit how can you not laugh?
Islam, Christianity. What’s the idea of an almighty or any god have to do with the mistreatment of human groups. This editorial is drivel.
A better title for the article would be “Ignorant Whites Can’t Grasp Basic Facts”.
We can remove “Whites” and put “Americans” since that’s how the “opinion” piece reads.
“Over-entitled darkies” is a fiction, btw, thus the use of the term. I’m making fun of this idiotic piece.
I can’t see why the Marshall plan (how long did that go on–a decade during some part of our huge history) has more significance to you as a part of history rather than the 500 years of systematic killing of American Indians and the enslavement of African Americans. And when will white guys stop telling the history and give the people who lived it a chance? Different perspectives are necessary. Whether someone is going to kill in the name of god or as an atheist doesn’t matter. It comes down to humanity. Unfortunate that badly educated Americans aren’t a minority.
pebbles. you need help with your textual analysis. you’re missing a bit here
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